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White Sandwich Bread

This White Sandwich Bread recipe has great flavor and texture, perfect for your next BLT or PBJ.

The sponge loaf is on the left and sourdough starter loaf is on the right.

Did you know that August is national sandwich month? I don’t know who got to decide that, but I’m gonna run with it. To celebrate the sandwich I’m offering a recipe for quintessential sliced white bread.

Though I usually prefer a whole wheat or rye bread for the flavor and texture, I think certain sandwiches work best with simple, sliced white bread, like a BLT or PB&J. But just because it’s white bread doesn’t mean it has to have the lackluster taste and squishy texture of a certain “wonderous” bread that many of us ate growing up.

I made this bread last week because the luscious summer tomatoes on my kitchen counter kept whispering “BLT, BLT…” I made a beautiful loaf with my sourdough starter. By the time the bread was baked and cooled I’d lost the daylight and we were starving. So we just went ahead with dinner and I planned to make another loaf to photograph for the post.

I keep a sourdough starter in my refrigerator and I like to use it for most of my breads. If you don’t have a starter hanging around in your refrigerator you can also make this recipe using a sponge. If you enjoy bread baking and do it fairly frequently I think it’s worth creating your own sourdough starter.

What’s the difference between a sourdough starter and a sponge? A starter is a living batter that you build over several days of careful tending to cultivate wild yeast from the environment. There are many ways to create a starter. I made mine using a mash from my son’s beer-making.

Once you have a starter, as long as you feed it periodically it can, theoretically, live forever. Each time I’m going to make bread I take my starter out of the refrigerator several hours or the night before. I replace the amount taken with equal parts flour and water. I used a cup of starter for this recipe so I added a 1/2 cup each of flour and water to replenish.

If you don’t have a starter you can begin your bread dough with a sponge. A sponge is a mixture of flour, water and yeast that’s allowed to ferment for a period before you continue mixing the bread dough. While a sponge won’t give the depth of flavor that a sourdough starter does, it still produces a nice loaf of bread with good texture and flavor. Since I started with fairly warm water (100°), I left mine just a hour before mixing the dough. If you have the time and want a better flavor for your bread start with cooler water (room temp) and let it sit longer. You could start the sponge the night before and then mix the dough in the morning to have loaves ready for lunch.

So that I could offer alternate directions for those who don’t have a sourdough starter I decided to make two loaves of bread, one with the starter and one with a sponge.

After just one hour the sponge was active and ready to go.

The loaf is ready for the oven when it comes 1″ over the top of the pan.

The two loaves were a little different. The loaf made with the starter rose dramatically in the oven, mushrooming over the sides of the pan. I loved the way it looked, rustic and homey with a slightly irregular crumb. The starter loaf browned better than the loaf made from the sponge. The biggest difference was in flavor. Both breads had a nice chewy yet soft texture, due to the milk and butter in the recipe, but the bread made from the sponge had a very pronounced yeasty flavor that was not unpleasant, but it did overtake the wheat-y taste a bit.

Contrary to the name, the sourdough bread did not have a sour taste, it had a slightly sweet, nutty, pronounced wheat flavor. If I didn’t taste them side-by-side I’m sure I would have thoroughly enjoyed either loaf. For my money the more complex flavor of the sourdough loaf is worth the trouble of keeping a starter alive in your refrigerator.

Warm the milk in the microwave to about 100°F. Stir the butter into the warm milk to melt.

The temperature of the milk should be about 90°, close to body temp.

Combine the starter, milk, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl.

Stir with the paddle attachment to combine.

Add 1.5 cups of the flour and stir until the batter looks like thick pancake batter.

Change to the dough hook.

With the mixer running, slowly add the remaining flour until the dough gathers on the hook and clears the sides of the bowl. You might not use all the flour.

Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Knead for about a minute to form a smooth ball. If the dough is very sticky sprinkle a little more flour as you knead.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for about 1-1.5 hours until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 325°F convection or 350°F regular

Place a small baking pan with stones on the floor of the oven to preheat

Grease a 8"x4" loaf pan with a very light film of vegetable oil

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and without kneading out the air gently push the dough to a rectangle shape, turn the short side of the rectangle to face you

Starting from the top side, fold the rectangle into thirds, like a letter

Turn the dough so the short side is facing you and tightly roll the dough from top to bottom to form a log shape. As you roll pinch the ends of the dough to form a tight roll

If the log is shorter than the loaf pan, gently roll and push the log from the center out to the size of the pan

Set the dough into the pan and cover with a damp kitchen towel.

Set in a warm place and rise until the dough comes 1" over the top of the pan, about 1-1.5 hours

Use a sharp knife or razor to cut a 1/2" deep slash down the center of the loaf

Place the loaf in the oven and pour 1/2 cup water over the preheated stones.

Bake about 30-35 minutes until golden brown and and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The interior temp should be about 190°F.

Cool in the pan about 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack

Finish cooling to room temperature before slicing

Notes

If you don't have a sourdough starter already make a sponge with 1/2 cup of warm water, 1/2 cup of all purpose flour and 1.5 teaspoon of yeast. Combine the ingredients in a mixer bowl and allow to rise for at least 1 hour. Proceed with the recipe from there.

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Baking is an art and a science, but it’s not rocket science. Anyone can bake if they have a good recipe and the helping hand of a seasoned baker. I’m a pastry chef and lifelong baker. I enjoy sharing my well-tested recipes with bakers of every skill level.Read more….

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